List of Ancient Egyptian gods

Ancient Egypt had many gods, but some are more popular and more known than others. This page lists the most popular and well known list of ancient Egyptian gods. The list is alphabetical so is not in order of importance. Some temples are dedicated to some of the gods, so when you see a link to the temple in the description of the god, it means there are some inscriptions in that temple that are specific to that god.

AMUN (AMEN, AMON)

the great god of Thebes of uncertain origin; represented as a man, sometimes ithyphallic; identified with Re as Amen-Re; sacred animals, the ram and the goose. Temples: Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple

ANAT

Goddess of Syrian origin, with warlike character; represented as a woman holding a shield and an axe.

ANUBIS (ANPU)

The jackal-god, patron of embalmers; the great necropolis-god.

ANUKIS (ANQET)

Goddess of the cataract-region at Aswan; wife of Khnum; represented as a woman with a high feather head-dress.

ARSAPHES (HERISHEF)

Ram-headed god from Heracleopolis.

ASTARTE

Goddess of Syrian origin; introduced into Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty.

ATEN

God of the sun-disk, worshipped as the great creator-god by Akhenaten.

ATUM (TUM)

The original sun-god of Heliopolis, later identified with Re; represented as a man.

BASTET (BAST)

Cat-goddess whose cult-centre was at Bubastis in the Delta; in the Late Period regarded as a beneficent deity.

BES

Dwarf-deity with leonine features; a domestic god, protector against snakes and various terrors; helper of women in child-birth.

EDJO (WADJET, BUTO)

The cobra-goddess of Buto in the Delta; tutelary deity of Lower Egypt, appearing on the royal diadem, protecting the king.

GEB

The earth-god; husband of Nut; member of the ennead of Heliopolis; represented as a man.

HAPY

God of the Nile in inundation; represented as a man with full, heavy breasts, a clump of papyrus on his head, and bearing heavily laden offering-tables.

HAROERIS

A form of Horus, the ‘Elder Horus'; identified with the falcon-god and particularly the patron of the king.

HARPOCRATES (HOR-PA-KHRED)

Horus-the-Child, a late form of Horus in his aspect of being son of Isis and Osiris; represented as a naked child wearing the lock of youth and holding one finger to his mouth.

HARSIESIS

A form of Horus, specifically designated son of ‘Isis’.

HATHOR

Goddess of many functions and attributes; represented often as a cow or a cow-headed woman, or as a woman with horned head-dress; the suckler of the king; the ‘Golden One'; cult-centres at Memphis, Cusae, Gebelein, Dendera; the patron deity of the mining-region of Sinai; identified by the Greeks with Aphrodite.

HAT-MEHIT

Fish-goddess of Mendes in the Delta; sometimes represented as a woman with a fish on her head.

HEQET

Frog-goddess of Antinoopolis where she was associated with Khnum; a helper of women in child-birth.

HORUS

The falcon-deity, originally the sky-god, identified with the king during his lifetime; also regarded as the son of Osiris and Isis, for the former of whom he became the avenger; cult-centres in many places, e.g. Behdet in the Delta, Hierakonpolis and Edfu in Upper Egypt. See also, Haroeris, Harpocrates, Harsiesis, Re-Harakhty. – Temples: Edfu Temple, Kom Ombo Temple, Luxor Temple.

IMHOTEP (IMOUTHES)

The deified chief minister of Djoser and architect of the Step Pyramid; in the Late Period venerated as the god of learning and medicine; represented as a seated man holding an open papyrus; equated by the Greeks with Asklepios.

ISIS

The divine mother, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus; one of the four ‘protector’-goddesses, guarding coffins and Canopic jars; sister of Nephthys with whom she acted as a divine mourner for the dead; in the Late Period Philae was her principal cult-centre.

KHEPRI

The scarab-beetle god, identified with Re as a creator-god; often represented as a beetle within the sun-disk.

KHNUM

Ram-headed god of Elephantine, god of the Cataract-region; thought to have moulded man on a potter’s wheel.

KHONS

The moon-god, represented as a man; with Amun and Mut as father and mother, forming the Theban triad. Temples: Luxor Temple

MAAT

Goddess of truth, right, and orderly conduct; represented as a woman with an ostrich-feather on her head. Temples: Luxor Temple

MIN

The primeval god of Coptos; later revered as a god of fertility, and closely associated with Amun; represented as an ithyphallic human statue, holding a flagellum.

MONTH (MUNT)

Originally the local deity of Her-monthis, just south of Thebes; later the war-god of the Egyptian king; represented as falcon-headed. – Temples: Karnak Temple

MUT

The divine wife of Amun; cult-centre at Asheru, south of the main temple of Amen-Re at Karnak; originally a vulture-goddess, later represented usually as a woman. – Temples: Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple

NEFERTUM

The god of the lotus, and hence of unguents; worshipped at Memphis as the son of Ptah and Sakhmet; represented as a man with a lotus-flower head-dress.

NEHEB-KAU

A serpent deity of the underworld, some-times represented with a man’s body and holding the eye of Horus.

NEITH (NET)

Goddess of Sais; represented as a woman wearing the red crown; her emblem, a shield with crossed arrows; one of the four ‘protector’-goddesses who guarded coffins and Canopic jars; identified by the Greeks with Athena.

NEKHBET

Vulture-goddess of Nekheb (modern El-Kab); tutelary deity of Upper Egypt, sometimes appearing on the royal diadem beside the cobra (Edjo).

NEPHTHYS (NEBET-HET)

Sister of Isis; one of the four ‘protector’-goddesses, who guarded coffins and Canopic jars; with Isis acted as mourner for Osiris and hence for other dead people; represented as a woman.

NUN (NU)

God of the primeval chaos.

NUT

The sky-goddess, wife of Geb, the earth-god; represented as a woman, her naked body curved to form the arch of heaven.

ONURIS (ANHUR)

God of This in Upper Egypt; the divine huntsman; represented as a man.

OSIRIS (ASAR)

The god of the underworld, identified as the dead king; also a god of the inundation and vegetation; represented as a mummified king; principal cult-centre, Abydos. Temples: Luxor Temple

PTAH

Creator-god of Memphis, represented as a man, mummiform, possibly originally as a statue; the patron god of craftsmen; equated by the Greeks with Hephaestus.

PTAH-SEKER-OSIRIS

A composite deity, incorporating the principal gods of creation, death, and after-life; represented like Osiris as a mummified king.

QADESH

Goddess of Syrian origin, often represented as a woman standing on a lion’s back.

RE (RA)

The sun-god of Heliopolis; head of the great ennead, supreme judge; often linked with other gods aspiring to universality, e.g. Amen-Re, Sobk-Re; represented as falcon-headed.

RE-HARAKHTY

A god in the form of a falcon, embodying the characteristics of Re and Horus (here called ‘Horus of the Horizon’).

RENENUTET (ERNUTET, THERMUTHIS)

Goddess of harvest and fertility; represented as a snake or a snake-headed woman.

RESHEF (RESHPU)

God of war and thunder, of Syrian origin.

SAKHMET

A lion-headed goddess worshipped in the area of Memphis; wife of Ptah; regarded as the bringer of destruction to the enemies of Re.

SARAPIS

A god introduced into Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period having the characteristics of Egyptian (Osiris) and Greek (Zeus) gods; represented as a bearded man wearing the modius head-dress.

SATIS (SATET)

Goddess of the Island of Siheil in the Cataract-region; represented as a woman wearing the white crown with antelope horns; the daughter of Khnum and Anukis.

SELKIS (SELKIT, SERQET)

A scorpion-goddess, identified with the scorching heat of the sun; one of the four ‘protector’-goddesses, guarding coffins and Canopic jars; shown sometimes as a woman with a scorpion on her head.

SESHAT

The goddess of writing; the divine keeper of royal annals; represented as a woman.

SETH (SET, SUTEKH)

The god of storms and violence; identified with many animals, including the pig, ass, okapi, and hippopotamus; represented as an animal of unidentified type; brother of Osiris and his murderer; the rival of Horus; equated by the Greeks with Typhon.

SHU

The god of air; with Tefnut, forming the first pair of gods in the Heliopolitan ennead; shown often as a man separating Nut (sky) from Geb (earth).

SOBK (SEBEK, SUCHOS)

The crocodile-god, worshipped throughout Egypt, but especially in the Faiyum, and at Gebelein and Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt. – Temples: Kom Ombo Temple

SOKARIS (SOKAR, SEKER)

A falcon-headed god of the necropolis; cult-centre in Memphis.

SOPDU

The ancient falcon-god of Saft el-Henna in the Delta; a warrior-god, protector of the eastern frontier; represented often as an Asiatic warrior.

SOTHIS (SEPDET)

The dog-star Sirius, deified as a goddess; shown as a woman with a star on her head.

TATJENEN

The primeval earth-god of Memphis; later identified with Ptah.

TEFNUT

The goddess of moisture; with Shu forming the first pair of the Heliopolitan ennead.

THOERIS (TAURT, TAWERET)

The hippopotamus-goddess; a beneficent deity, the patron of woman in child-birth.

THOTH

The ibis-headed god of Hermopolis; the scribe of the gods and the inventor of writing; the ape as well as the ibis being sacred to him.

UNNEFER (WENEN-NEFER, ONNOPHRIS)

A name meaning ‘he who is continually happy’, given to Osiris after his resurrection.

WEPWAWET (UPUAUT)

The jackal-god of Asyut in Middle Egypt; a god of the necropolis and an avenger of Osiris.